Vehicles for Sale Nearby

2005-2007 Toyota Avalon

Comments

What's wrong with the Avalon? My Avalon does not have any problems. I had a G35 built in Japan which had problems. This forum is not an accurate measure of the quality of the thousand's of Avalons which have been sold.

If the rain sensors are IR (infrared) they do not (exactly) find moisture. They find different heat patterns. The different heat patterns can signify excess moisture. So the wipers come on based on a setting for the pattern read.

If the car has been parked with the windows up in the sun, or even with just the windows up, a little moisture will form on the INside of the windshield. You can't see it. But it's there. The IR can "see" it. The wipers come on at the start..but the air circulation immediately removes the moisture. The wipers go off.

Sounds logical but you know what happens when wipers hit dry surfaces. It decreases their life and before you know it you need new wipers. Its a small thing but intereresting considering the amount of posts.

Greetings, certainly pleased to have found this forum. I have been an Infiniti Q45 owner since 1991 and am happily trading in my 97 Q45 for a 2005 Glacier White Avalon Limited with beige perforated leather, voice navigation, full mats (with trunk mat), wheel locks, and the intelligent cruise control. I feel like I am leaving a great "marque", having been a loyal Infiniti customer for so very long, but I gave several Infiniti dealers many opportunities to put me into a 2005 Q45 Premium to no avail.

After doing much research and in truth, admiring the new lines of the 05 Avalon from afar, I decided to drive one this past Friday in Arlington VA. Well, Koons in Arlington gave me the same trade-in value as I would have received on a $62,300 Q45, plus discounting the Avalon's MSRP by nearly $2,000 --- much better than any Infiniti dealer could do - on a car costing nearly twice as much! I feel that I am getting a wonderful vehicle, with ALL of the options on a Q45 Premium (Intelligent Cruise, Heated/Cooled front seats, reclining rears, rain sensing wipers, and a superb voice activated nav system) for a net gain of over $25,000 in my pocket --- not to mention 2 years, 25,000 free maintenance (an Internet option).

Also, the Avalon's MUCH better gas mileage (I hope), the driver's seat cushion extender (very nice) and a dealer not more than 4 blocks from my house --- I am really thinking it is a good choice.

My question to the forum, has anyone here "gone down" from a rear wheel drive V8 and how do you feel ? Also, since the dealer is swapping a Glacier white/grey interior for my preferred beige leather interior and will have the vehicle for me this weekend, is there ANYTHING that I should look for or "ask for" before taking delivery ? I'm not much into XM radio as I just don't want another monthly subscription fee for ANYTHING, but is there anything else that I should ask for ?

Lexus ES-330. My daughter has her second Lexus and now it is a 2006. I thought I woud get a great quality car by getting the Best toyota car, a 2005 Limited, and saving some bucks by not going $4-6000 more for a Lexus. I was sold on the 2005 write ups and the expectation that the Toyota name, alone had quality all over it. The 280 HP also was a great feature.

I parked my Limited next to the Lexus and compared the interior and exterior trim and fit.There certainly is a big difference in quality and alignment control over the seams at all of the doors,navigation door, glove compartment , rear view mirrors,hood, and trunk. My car has 3/4 inch touch up paint at the rear bumper.The Limited emblen is on crocked. Several other items were repaired.Sorry about being so negative,however, I need a h--- alot more positives to change my feeling. Ange1

I have noticed some comments from time to time re the 2005 Avalon air conditioner and gas mileage. The air conditioner compressor runs at the speed the engine runs. You do not use more or less gas if you lower the fan speed, and or it is hot or have high humidity day. The air conditioner is on or off. There is no in between. My wife thinks so on our home air conditioner.

Some of the high end cars may shut down the compressor if the car gets too cold inside and starts back up when it is required to control the preset temperature. You have to be carefull with this control as I tried to control temperature, some time ago, by turning the comprsssor on off while on a Turnpike, and ended up burning up the compressor clutch. There is a small reduction in gas mileage with the air on. I don't know for certain, but I would guess it is somewhere around 1-2 MPG. Ange1

I don't think your car comes with bluetooth which allows you to use a bluetooth enabled cellphone and then be able to talk hands free and have the sound come out of the radio speakers. That is one feature I wish they would add.

If you're saving $25k on the car compared to an Infinity, what's another $10 a month for the XM radio. You get cd quality music and a choice of many stations that you can hear across the country.

I would like to get your comparison of the handling of the Av compared to the Q45.

On a somewhat related note, once the car has started, what happens if the smart key is moved outside of the sensor range? Does the car not require the smart key signal any longer after the engine has started?

The car will contine to run until it is shut off, so yes the smart key is no longer needed.

" just bought avalon touring 05. My baby needs DVD system on it. I would love to invest in a portable DVD player like toshiba or sony, however, how do I put that thing secure behind the seat? Are there any other options? I don't want to install on the roof becaue i am leasing the car and don't want to damage or invest on things that i can't take it with me. "

Please search for my posts on the headrest DVD system I had installed.

"I've read post here that are both praise worthy and critical of the Avalon. I've got an 06 ordered and was just wondering if you had it to do over, would you still buy the Avalon or spring for something else? If you wouldn't buy the Avalon again, why?? Thanks for your input. "

I've had my LTD for just shy of 6 months now and have just over 9K miles on it.

Toyota changes the product mix they build at locations from time to time, so I've always found it to be prudent to rely on their published information regading site vehicles or components.

I try to be current by getting my build location info from the Toyota Manufacturing site. There you can take a look at what they indicate is built where. In the site I investigated, they were specific that Nummi does the Corolla and Vibe. The Matrix is done in Ontario along with the Corolla and the Lexus RX330:

This forum isn't a statistically significant sample, just a place where a number of Avalon owners and salespeopel exchange messages of variable veracity. The number of folks here posting about their positive experiences with the new Avalon seems to far exceed the number of posts where people are disappointed.

It's great to hear that there's nothing wrong with your Avalon. There's nothing 'wrong' with the Avalon in general, but there are problems with some Avalons in particular.

My comments had to do with the relative change in the problem frequency for Avalons (and all Georgetown, KY built Toyotas) with respect to the past and with current competiitors.

In this year's current JDPower Initial Quality Study, neither the Avalon or Camry finished in the top three of their class, a position that they dominated in the late 1990's. The mid-sized GM cars in this segment do better and have done better that the Avalon / Camry for the last several years than earlier

The 2002 Avalon came in 3rd in the JDPower Dependability Study, which looks at total problems over 3 years. 1st and 2nd were two Buicks. GM is trying hard and doing better than Toyota in this segment despite all of the negative press they earned in prior years.

I still believe that Toyota let the quality slide at Georgetown in exchange for lower costs and higher profits through more domestic sourcing.

Greenbelt, thanks for for data you listed. I am in total agreement. I am a P.E. in Corrosion Engineering and have been doing high PSIG equipment inspections since 1957 and still do consulting work. I believe I have the background to evaluate quality work. The old saying, " if you can't say anything nice about someone or something don't say it", but when you do a lot of background searching and spend mid $30,000 for an automobile and find the the things that set a car apart from another, not there, you don't feel great about it. Thanks for the data again as I was beginning to feel I was all alone listing negative comments. Enough said. Ange1

I'm the proud owner a blizzard pearl 2005 XLS and I'd like to upgrade the steering wheel and shifter to the wood grain leather wrap that comes standard in the limited. I should have ordered the upgrades when I bought the car but I didn't and my local dealer says neither are available for sale as after-market upgrades yet. Does anyone here have a source or dealer that's providing the upgrades yet? There's not too many accessories available for '05 Avy. However, Toyota does offer a OEM wood grain dash kit for the center console that includes covers for the stereo compartment and the DVD navigation console pull out.

dcboater, did you order a 2005 or 2006? 2005 Avalon has no such color of Glacier White, its white color is Blizzard Pearl. Why you ask the question, "what does the bluetooth technology do for me?", the 2005 Avalon does not come with Bluetooth technology. Again, are you talking about a 2006 Avalon?

The information you provided does not tell us where most product originates. Its a North American site. As an example, we know that manufacturing is done in Canada on the RX 330. However, most of this product originates from Japan. In addition, although most Camrys are built in Kentucky; some (a very tiny portion) come from Japan. This site just tells us about manufacturing capabilities, but it does not tell us anything about where most of the product is built. Most Corollas originate from Fremont, the Nummi Plant, and not from Canada.

In any event, as you correctly indicated, Toyota changes its mix. My only point was citing some of the best plants Toyota had and comparing it to the Georgetown. I will like to know how this plant measures up to the other plants in North America and Japan.

Another interesting tidbit is the JD Power problems per vehicles. Toyota's have increased year over year in this area, which is disappointing. As I mentioned previously, if there any problems with the Avalon, it could be just due to the fact that the vehicle is new as CR indicated in April. A bigger problem, I think, is due to the fact that the manufacturers need to cut cost in order to hold the line on pricing. Right now, the industry is too competitive and pricing is definetly heading down. In order to be competitive, the manufacturer must cut costs and restoring to questionable suppliers.

My Buick and BMW auto wipers sent a "signal", the nature of which I've forgotten, but if any of the signal were reflected back to the sender by rain drops the wipers activated. The more reflection the faster the operation. To keep the wipers from running when you start the car keep the wiper switch in the OFF posution.

I believe the part of the infrared beam is reflected from the glass due to the difference in glass and air when it reaches the outer surface of the windshield. When there is water on the outside the glass, the infrared continues on and less is reflected. This lower reflection of the infrared beam turns on the wiper.

How much is the Toyota OEM wood grain dash kit? I bought a 21 pc kit on ebay for my 03 for under 100 bucks, a color matched spoiler for $135, and a gold package for $115. MUCH less than the Toyota parts.

My 2005 Avalon XLS replaces a 1998 Lexus GS400, and I feel fine. Horsepower is down by less than seven percent, and fuel consumption has improved by about 20 percent. With the exception of a slight decrease in trunk space, there's more room elsewhere - especially in the rear seat area. I am unconcerned about any perceived loss of status. I had considered 'moving up' to a Lexus LS430, but really don't like the appearance of the current model (reminds me of a 90s Mercedes) and do wonder if I want to spend over $100M Canadian on a car. Maybe the next model of LS will convince me.I drove Cressidas from 1981 to 1993, and moved with some reluctance to a 1993 Camry Sport (now badged as XLE). I wasn't sure I'd like a front-drive vehicle, but lived happily with it before getting the 1998 GS.I now spend winters in Arizona, so the better traction of front drive is no longer an attractive benefit, but could be for others. I drove the Camry in winter snow for several years without needing snow tires. But, then, I managed to do without those on the Cressidas, too...However, it seems that many later rear drives are much more powerful, and have high-speed tires with reduced tread depth. Snow tires may be necessary in many northern areas.The once-dreaded torque-steer characteristics of front drive are no longer the deterrent they used to be, in my experience.

And like I said, when I drove the test Limited (not mine to be delivered this weekend), I "put it through the paces" and was very happily surprised about the handling characteristics. Thought the AV limited is not meant to be a Porsche 911 by any means, she does not have any handling demons. I was quite surprised, especially with the 280 hp numbers. My Q45, even with lifetime dealer maintenance, was getting "long in the tooth" when it came to high-speed cornering and handling bumps eloquently.

As far as the "perceived loss of status" - I really didn't mean it that way... I just shocked a number of people when I came into my NYC office this Monday and the word got out that I bought a Toyota after being such a loyal, die-hard Infiniti owner.

Once discussion delved into the equipment and then comparison of "net price" --- no worries !

Have 2005 Avalon. Can anyone tell me how I can keep a running average of fuel mileage. I'd like to know what my mileage would be on a long trip or, for that matter, several months. Right now, whenever I fill the tank, the average goes back to zero. Also, how can the Trip Timer keep a record of time for longer than one trip, however short it might be. I would like to know what my driving time would be for a long trip. Each time the ignition is turned off, the timer zeroes. Thanks.

Note that the Lexus RX330 engine and transmission are both made at the Toyota plant in West Virginia. Not everyone is aware of the big role the WVA plant plays for Toyota. See below. I didn't list the Toyota Bodine facilities in St. Louis, but that's where the engine blocks and cylinder heads are made.

Also note that in 2004 54% of Corollas were made at Nummi, 46% in Canada.

Siennas, Sequoias and Tundras are made in Indiana. Tundra moves to San Antonio in 2006.===================================Toyota, NUMMI

"I'd like to know what my mileage would be on a long trip or, for that matter, several months."

Maryj, I complained about this, too, until it hit me: Do it the old-fashioned way - like when there were no trip computers, no digital readouts, no ding-ding-ding's. Of course, we had time to record gas and mileage because the kid outside was pumping gas for us!